General

Recently, leaders of ASEAN countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei have said that they will further enhance good-neighborly and friendly relations with China. At the same time, the trade between China and ASEAN increased by 9.6% year-on-year from January to February this year. With regard to the recent trend of continuous and positive cooperation between China and ASEAN, Xu Ningning, Executive Chairman of the China-ASEAN Business Council and Chairman of the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, said that China and ASEAN member countries continue to enhance good-neighborly and friendly relations, and the level of international trade and economic cooperation continues to improve.

Xu Ningning said that in 2022, the top five countries along the "the Belt and Road" that China's non-financial direct investment will mainly invest in are ASEAN countries, and six of the ten countries that China will mainly invest in are ASEAN countries, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. In January this year, Chinese enterprises invested RMB17.06 billion in non-financial direct investment in countries along the "the Belt and Road", up 42.7% year on year, accounting for 22.5% of the total amount in the same period, up 2 percentage points over the same period last year. The top three major investment countries are ASEAN countries, and five of the top ten investment countries are ASEAN countries, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

Xu Ningning pointed out that the continuous improvement of the level of international trade and economic cooperation between China and ASEAN member countries has promoted the consolidation and development of the strategic partnership between the two sides, and helped the economic growth of regional countries, regional economic integration and even global economic growth.

When talking about the current situation and prospects of international trade and economic cooperation between China and ASEAN, Xu Ningning said that the trend of practical cooperation continued to deepen significantly and exchanges and mutual learning became increasingly close. He believed that in the fields of digital economy, infrastructure construction, agriculture, processing and manufacturing, China and ASEAN countries will continue to deepen cooperation, which will not only consolidate the largest international trade partnership between the two sides, but also produce more results in the field of international trade and investment cooperation.